Summary 5th week Andalucía Sunshine Tour 2023

Mar 14, 2023

On February 7, one of the most important international competitions that takes place in our country began, specifically the Andalusia.   

In total there are 7 weeks of competition, since it will end on March 26th. On Sunday ended the 5th week of this Andalucía Sunshine Tour and today begins the sixth. We are in the final stretch. 

Grand Prix Diputación de Cádiz, scoring for the Paris Games 2024  

The most important test as it counted for the ranking in the classification for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. 50 riders participated in this event. Of course, we could enjoy another British victory.   

It was James Smith with "Arkuga" who won the Grand Prix. Once the test was over and with the title in hand, he was very happy and comforting.   

"I think today's course was quite difficult. There were only nine clean rides among the 50 participants, a sign of the difficulty of the race," he commented. 

Young horse tests  

The fifth week of the Andalucía Sunshine Tour has stood out for being a week of competition with tests for young horses, which are called those that are 7 years old or younger.  

On Tuesday and Wednesday there were tests for 5, 6 and 7 year old horses. Among these tests we highlight the following winners. 

• Test for 7 year old horses: the Belgian Kevin Gielen with 'Luna Van De Zeilhoek' took the first position in a test contested on Tuesday and repeated his victory on Wednesday. Another race was much closer with a tie for first place between Konstantin E. Van Damme with 'Charly Brown G' and Chloe Winchester with 'Tisara Quality Cruise'. In addition, on Wednesday we had another 1.30m test where the victory was won by Vince Jarmy with 'For Lexcis Z'. 

• Test for 6 year old horses: on Tuesday Katty King with 'Ronermus Van Het Weyenshof' and Elliott Dowler with 'Centivetto PS' were the best and took the victory. Brazilian Katty King repeated victory with 'Ronermus van het Weyenshof' in a new test on Wednesday. Rebecca Middleton with "Leta LVP", also took a victory in the first test on the same day. 

• Test for 5 year old horses: the tests held at a height of 1.10m where the British were outstanding, as in some of the previous tests.  Jude Burgess with "A Magic Mike Z" took the victory. The second 5 year old test also went to another British rider, this time Ronnie Jones with "Skylla's Little Stevie" was the winner. The second place of the Spaniard Jesús Bamonde with "AGR Unstoppable" in the first test is worth mentioning. 

After these first tests of the young horses, the highlights came on Thursday and for the weekend, with the dispute of a CSIYH1*, CSI4*, CSI1*, GP Small or Medium Tour. Also an important test of 6 bars, many more Grand Prix and to crown, the Grand Prix Diputación de Cádiz where the best riders face each other in the 5th week of Andalucía Sunshine Tour 2023. 

Six bars test  

Over the weekend we were able to enjoy in the world's largest indoor track, the incredible six bars test. It is a test that consists of six obstacles, hence the name six bars, the last hurdle is 1.60m high. 

It consists of 3 rounds in which some participants are disqualified and the difficulty increases, i.e. the last obstacle of the last round was 1.80m high.   

Ciaran Nallon with "Fifty Shaders of Grey" and Charlotte Bettendorf with "Salt Lake City 4" were the winners of the event as they were the only ones who finished the course perfectly. 

Small Grand Prix, Big Tour and Medium Tour 

David Will with 'Zaccorado Blue' won the Small Grand Prix, which was the ranking test on Saturday. In other tests we could experience several British triumphs.   

On the one hand, Guy Williams with 'Second Chance' was the winner in the other test 1.35m of the Big Tour. In Medium Tour 1.40m Jude Burgess with "Dreams of Don" and Nathan Bull with "Milton Van Vrijhern" were the best positioned. In Medium Tour 1.30m the champion was Jesús Garmendia Echevarría with "Ulises del Pomar". 

Small Tour 

In Small Tour there were also several contests. The 1.45m in which Pello Elorduy Ibarzabal with "Champenoise de Rampan" was the fastest. On the other hand, in the 1.35m Hugo Álvarez Amaro with "Olina Van de Looise Heide" took first place. And finally, Nora García Urtasun with 'Dallila' won in 1.30m.  

And here is the summary of the fifth week Andalucía Sunshine Tour 2023. Follow us on social networks to stay updated on the equestrian and equestrian world.